Pumpkin spice and bitter breeze
by pianoplayer01
Summary: Some times, all you need to brighten your day is that one person, a warm drink and a way to look at the world that means its not cold any more. With Jerome in Mara's life, she knew no matter what season, she would always feel at home, feel the sun on her face, with his arms around her, for he held her heart after all. What more could she need?


**Hello dear readers who may be reading this message, just wanted to add a short note here to say happy fall/happy autumn. Can you believe its almost September already? It still feels like the day after Christmas to me despite a very busy year. Of course the start of fall brings with it the return of the pumpkin latte to star bucks, which can you believe they do not serve here in the UK. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own house of Anubis, only my ideas for stories, the characters are from the original, meaning also the characters are not mine, nor is Star bucks. **

My eyes watched the street out side through the glass window beside me. It was clean, and yet the world looked just a little bit dimmer, though I suppose autumn is supposed to bring the evening earlier. The room feels cosy, sheltered by its warm yellow light, the walls humbled, themselves, not hiding behind pretty paper masks, although here and there, signs were plastered with pins to keep them in place and advertise new things.

There weren't many tables, some booths and a few loose, the middle of the building being the counter, a glass case placed beside it filled with cakes and delicious food, the kitchen beyond it, but only employed customers went there. I checked my watch. 7:15pm. And just on cue, the door sprung open, the tinkling of the bell making me snap my head up to see him approaching. I tried my best to frown as he approached, but he was just so adorable, the way his smile made his face crinkle with laugh lines, and the bitter breeze out side had blown his tousled blonde hair in to his cerulean eyes.

He walked over to my booth by the window, his hands in the pockets of his long black coat, a red scarf I knitted him last Christmas wrapped loosely round his neck, and making him look even paler than he already was. I snapped out of my day dream as he slid on to the leather seat in front of me, brushing his hands across the table, which despite much wiping, still had little dots of sugar and salt here and there. We sat, for a moment, in silence.

Nervously, he fiddled with one of the card menus, but I was the one to start the conversation. "You're late," I smiled at him and he smirked back. "Well you see Miss Jaffray," he reached out and took my hand in his which made me giggle, and his eyes twinkle in that oh so charming way, leaving me grinning back at him like a Cheshire cat, more than the pumpkins in the fall.

"I had to make a stop before I came here," his eyes searched mine, and I could feel myself melting in to a puddle at his feet, like the remains of table twos hot chocolate, dripping lazily from the edge of the table in the corner of my eye. The shop was pretty much deserted now, the only noise being from the hum of the fridge and the servers in their bottle green aprons, the logo on the middle. Their eyes flickered to us from time to time, and I could tell they were just dieing to get us to leave as soon as possible.

It was Friday evening after all, the sooner they could close up, the sooner they could get out of the door with their friends, to have dinner with families or to just lie down alone and read for a while. I knew that feeling, but right now all I could feel was happiness.

He pushed the small brown parcel that he had been carrying under his arm towards me. "Open it," he was practically bouncing up and down on his seat in excitement to see my reaction, eyes wide and oddly like a puppies, only far cuter.

A laugh burst from my lips, and his eyes softened at the sound. My fingers reached out to his hair, to remove the small specks of red and gold leaves that nestled there. He brushed my fingers away, taking my hand in his and kissing it, before placing it on the strings of the parcel and helping me untie them. Leaning across the table, he whispered in my ear "for you," sending shivers down my spine, which were definitely not from the cold, as in here, it was toasty warm, the smell of coffee and cinnamon all around.

The paper fell apart, and before me was a rectangular red box with "Mara" printed on it in a swirling gold font. It was large enough to fit in my hand, the mass of paper left behind so much larger, which only made the package much more mysterious as Jerome continued his chant of "open it, open it, open it, I cant look, wait have you opened it yet?"

Sighing dramatically as though it was the most boring thing in the world to do, I opened the box, only to have my act soiled and for me to be the one bouncing up and down on my seat saying, "Thankyou, Thankyou, Ohmygosh Thankyou" and leaping around to Jerome's side of the booth to kiss his cheek repeatedly, before wrapping my arms around his waist and resting my head in the crook of his neck and shoulder. I felt so comfortable there, and complete as his wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer.

"Your welcome" he whispered with a small chuckle at my reaction, though I could tell he was relieved, as he kissed my fore head. For in the box was a charm bracelet, one like I had always wanted, the one with all these eclectic charms. I had begged for one for my thirteenth birthday, but mum had given me a football and stop watch instead, in an attempt to turn me in to a tom boy who didn't mind running around and getting covered in mud.

"Let me," He grinned, as he gently lifted my wrist and linked the bracelet around it, the gold cold against my caramel skin. When he had tied it, he lifted my wrist between our faces so we could both see before he began explaining the charms.

"This one," he pointed to a charm shaped like the sun "is to remind you always of how lovely you are, and you brighten up every day every time you smile. You are the sun in my life and you make every day worth living", he twirled the sun, sending the small gold and orange bauble spinning in its own little orbit. Next he pointed to a small metal book that had tiny pages of its own, with miniscule print that I couldn't read even with a microscope. "This, to show your liking of reading, how you never have your nose out of a book, and to show the intelligence that has brought to you"

I could feel happy tears in my eyes, glistening and threatening to stream, but luckily they didn't, not just yet any way. He went on to explain seven more charms, those being a snow flake, Noah's ark, a ballet dancer, a piano, a guitar, a vintage vinyl record and an oval the colour of the chain larger than the rest of the charms that when opened had a photograph of us stood together last fall, when we had run through the trees, the leaves crunching beneath us, and we ended up laughing and kissing beneath the grey sky. The picture showed us smiling, him looking down, me looking up as our fore heads leant together.

"There is one more charm I would like to give in person" he smiled, his eyes twinkling mischievously, as he unwrapped the scarf from his neck and tied it round my eyes. He took my hand to lead me out side, but I grabbed my cup first and gulped down its remains, before abandoning it on the table and following him out side in to the cold.

We walked for a little while and then I felt him attaching some thing to the bracelet, before he untied the scarf from my eyes and kissed the tip of my nose as my eyes adjusted to the light after the darkness. "Ta da" he pointed, only for us both to double over in laughter on to the grass, because he had attached a charm of a tiny star bucks cup, one of my favourites, the pumpkin lattes from this time of year.

"Thankyou so much Jerome, it's the most wonderful present ever I shall treasure it always." I could hear the smile in his voice, as he rolled over and leaned on his elbow beside me and I mirrored his actions. "Mara Jaffray, you are the only girl in the world who will ever understand me, and you cannot understand how grateful I am for that. I am so grateful for every thing you have helped me with, and for trusting me as much as I trust you. I will spend every day for the rest of forever trying to find the words to describe my love for you, but words will never be enough" I looked at him in happy awe as he leant over and kissed me, my eyes fluttering shut, my arms going around his neck.

Pulling back, he chuckled "you taste like pumpkin spiced latte" I batted his arm playfully, but he only pulled me closer. "But that's why you love me, Mr. strawberry lip gloss" I joked, only for him to tickle me. "That was a dare you promised never to mention again!" he laughed as I did. "I promise now, I – I promise" I laughed. Our lips met again, me Mara Jaffray and Him Jerome Clarke.

And as the leaves swirled around us, the skeleton trees mothering their fallen children, we held each other close and talked past the sun set, watching the colours swirl and blend like the northern lights on a simpler scale. I couldn't help but think, that if every year began to change this way, change wasn't so bad at all.

I looked at the world now, without the lens of glass between it and me, and suddenly the world wasn't so dim any more.


End file.
